Brochures on chik-V needed at the airport

THE EDITOR, Sir: On Tuesday, for the second time in less than two weeks, I landed at the Norman Manley International Airport. I was handed a Health Alert Card to be presented to the doctor in case I started showing signs of illness, such as fever, vomiting or diarrhoea. This is good, but should I not also have been handed a brochure with information on the chikungunya virus? This is the least we can do for those visiting our island at this time, in my opinion.

Both the health officer and the immigration officer told me that such brochures exist, but that they had apparently run out on both occasions that I passed through the airport. To be fair, last week when the health officer handed me the card, she warned me in a panic-stricken tone to "try to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes! The 'chicken virus' is here!"

I'm, therefore, calling urgently for brochures on chik-V to be distributed to every visitor arriving in the island until this plague has passed. And while we're at it, it would be very good if the immigration officers would thoroughly search each passport for stamps from those countries in West Africa where the Ebola virus is running rampant.